DAVIDSON, N.C.-- A man is carrying on a family tradition by doing a craft not often done by men, as far as we know.
There's an art to great needlepoint - perhaps unfairly left out of "stockings hung by the chimney with care."
Slow, tedious, methodical.
No one knows that better than Elaine McArn, who owns The Needlecraft Center in Davidson.
"99% female, 1 percent male, perhaps,” says McArn about her customer base.
But the hands creating several Christmas stockings belong to Bob Dillard.
Dillard is a Husband, father and grandfather who started needlepointing 5 years ago.
"It's very similar to paint by numbers,” Dillard says.
"Sunday afternoon watching a football game or baseball game, it's just relaxing... You have to watch the needle,” says Dillard.
But the real story is family tradition.
Taking needles, thread and yarn to patterns goes back generations of mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers.
Dillard's mother used to make the Christmas stockings.
Now at 92-years-old she can't.
"My mother had done it for her grandchildren, I decided I would do it for mine," says Dillard.
The list of great male needle-pointers, we're guessing, isn't a long one. Other than Bob Dillard, the name that keeps coming up is former football player Rosie Grier," ays McArn.
Back in the day, Grier wrote how to needlepoint "for men."
Dillard asked for help at The Needlecraft Center.
"We're impressed with his work,” McArn says.
And yes, some find it odd.
"I have people that say 'you do what?'" Dillard says.
But McArn says being male is a competitive advantage, because women measure needlepoint in time.
"A man will tell me there are 250,962 stitches in this, so they have more of an engineering take on doing needlepoint and that's why they are so good at it,” McArn says.
"I think that's a very special thing,” said McArn.
"These are things, like maybe old photographs, you want to keep around to remind yourself of your heritage,” Dillard says.
